The concept of pairs is prevalent in our society: two pairs of shoes, two slices of bread for a sandwich, and two flights for a round trip. These examples, however, are two identical pieces that form a cohesive whole. There are many other cases where two dissimilar pieces create one new entity: a ball and a hoop make basketball, hydrogen and oxygen become water, and a man and a woman create a marriage.
In the same way, a sentence needs two main parts to be a complete sentence. The first part, being the subect, even being long . . . >-----------< . . . needs to be finished by a verb of some sort. Therefore, a subject and a verb come together to form a complete sentence. Jesus wept. "Jesus" answers the question of who, and "wept" fulfills the action. If either part is missing, the sentence is not complete. It would be like a man going to his wedding and marrying . . . himself! It just would not work; he needs a wife.
Identifying the subject and verb of a sentence is the first part towards becoming a confident writer. Even if the sentence is long and contains a great deal of introductory information, the confident writer who knows how to identify subjects and verbs will punctuate the sentence correctly no matter how many additional phrases are present in the sentence.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Spring Break
With the advent of spring break, many people take advantage of the opportunity to travel to new places. Here at the Writing Center, it is no different.
I had never been to a Wawa gas station before, so I told myself that this was the year I would finally get there. Boy, was that a great decision! I found that there is so much to a Wawa that you would have trouble believing me if I told you: sandwiches made to order, coffee, tea, doughnuts, pita rounds with hummus, and even apple slices with peanut butter snacks. Oh, they also have gas as well for the vehicles. (There's something for everyone.) It was quite the experience.
I tell you this not to advertise for Wawa or incite you to applaud me for going on a stellar spring break trip; instead, I wanted to point out the novelty of the new. In the writing world, it is easy to become complacent with one's level of writing. One new writing insight, however, can add spice and creativity to the writing of even the most well-written writer. Semicolons, for example, can be used to join two complete sentences; they are really neat! Introducing a quotation with a colon after a complete sentence is great as well: "Here is an excellent example." Finally, writers--students, teachers, and professionals alike--can all add flair with the dash--as long as they are used rarely.
Think of the Writing Center lika a Wawa: there is something here for everybody. As you travel along your writing journey, stop by and pick up a token or tid-bit that will improve your skills and make your writing a bit more fun!
I had never been to a Wawa gas station before, so I told myself that this was the year I would finally get there. Boy, was that a great decision! I found that there is so much to a Wawa that you would have trouble believing me if I told you: sandwiches made to order, coffee, tea, doughnuts, pita rounds with hummus, and even apple slices with peanut butter snacks. Oh, they also have gas as well for the vehicles. (There's something for everyone.) It was quite the experience.
I tell you this not to advertise for Wawa or incite you to applaud me for going on a stellar spring break trip; instead, I wanted to point out the novelty of the new. In the writing world, it is easy to become complacent with one's level of writing. One new writing insight, however, can add spice and creativity to the writing of even the most well-written writer. Semicolons, for example, can be used to join two complete sentences; they are really neat! Introducing a quotation with a colon after a complete sentence is great as well: "Here is an excellent example." Finally, writers--students, teachers, and professionals alike--can all add flair with the dash--as long as they are used rarely.
Think of the Writing Center lika a Wawa: there is something here for everybody. As you travel along your writing journey, stop by and pick up a token or tid-bit that will improve your skills and make your writing a bit more fun!
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